Plans are on the anvil to upgrade Kumbakonam Municipality into a corporation by appending three town panchayats and more than a dozen village panchayats adjoining the existing civic limits. The expanded area, higher population and better revenue realisation would befit a functioning corporation facilitating better deliverance of civic amenities to the citizens are factors that merit the proposal, it is said.
The town was classified a Grade III municipality in 1866, then upgraded in 1949 as Grade I municipality and was bracketed as Selection Grade Municipality in 1974. From 1998, Kumbakonam has been enjoying the status of a Special Grade Municipality. The civic limits spread over 4.96 square miles with a population of 1.40 lakh as per the 2011 census. The local body is divided into 45 wards.
The Municipality runs one higher secondary school, four high schools and 13 primary schools besides three dispensaries. During 2015-16, the civic body garnered a revenue realisation of ₹39.44 crore.
The plans to upgrade Kumbakonam as a corporation took wings over a decade back when the local body passed a resolution to the effect and forwarded that to the State Government. The proposal that was hanging fire since then seems to have been given the required thrust with the result that the plans were redrafted and fine tuned before being forwarded again recently. The redrafted proposal papers are being processed at the governmental level for further action, sources in the civic body aver.
The sources said that as per the revised proposals, it has been proposed to merge Swamimalai, Darasuram and Tirunageswaram town panchayats as also Tiruvalanchuzhi, Ammachathiram, Valayapettai, Annal Agraharam, Baburajapuram, Asoor, Pazhavathankattalai, K. Karupoor, Sakkottai, Perumandi, Ulloor, Umamaheswarapuram, Thepperumanallur, Patteeswaram, Cholan Maaligai and Srinivasanallur village panchayats to the existing municipal limits to create an expanded Kumbakonam Corporation which would be spread over eight square miles to house a population of four lakh and generate revenue of over ₹ 50 crore a year.
